Sacramental Sorcery: The Invalidity of Roman Catholic Baptism

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by J.H. Thornwell

In 1845 the General Assembly of the American Presbyterian Church declared that Roman Catholic baptism is not Christian baptism. But in the ecumenical twentieth century, that declaration was all but forgotten by American Presbyterians – deliberately so. The leading southern Presbyterian theologian of the nineteenth century, J. H. Thornwell, wrote a defense of the 1845 declaration that has never been refuted by any theologian – it has simply been ignored. The publication of this book is intended to end that ignorance.

In an age when so-called Protestants favor tradition over Scripture, Thornwell reminds us of the Biblical truth: “We should not be deterred from admitting a Scriptural conclusion because it removes the structures of antiquity…. We are first to ascertain from Scripture what the true sacrament of baptism is, and then judge the practice of the church in every age by this standard…. The unbroken transmission of a visible Church in any line of succession is a figment of papists and prelatists. Conformity with the Scriptures, not ecclesiastical genealogy, is the true touchstone of a sound church.”